Newburyport Rotary - Newburyport Clipper

Today's meeting, February 22 opened with the singing of 'God Bless America", led by John Budzyna and Zack Longley. My, they have such nice voices! The invocation was also given by John Budzyna, followed by lunch of either swordfish or tri-colored tortellini.

Student Guests

Since it was vacation week, there were no high school students.

Birthdays and Anniversaries

Pres. Geri said there were no birthdays or anniversaries to report.

Happy Dollars

Liz Cullen was happy to introduce Marilyn Morrison, envoy with the Salvation Army, who is serving in the position that Paul Slegaitis just vacated. Zack Longley told Geri she missed his birthday. He just said celebrated it in Jacksonville, Florida last weekend. Jonathan Woodman is happy to be a new grandfather to Lilly. He is realizing that this will be a very expensive proposition. Gerry Hirsch wanted to announce that the next Ski Trip will be February 15, 2006. Only four people went on the last trip...Gerry and his wife, Jack Martin, and Bob Moore. Peter Kelly expressed his feelings about the camaraderie and good cooperation that he has witnessed in the past few months in our Rotary Club. He made note of the fact that we have raised $8,000 in recent fund raisers, and that is quite an accomplishment. Tom Howard was happy to display a model car built by his son t Triton High School. After seeing the program last week, he wanted us to know that Triton has the same program.

Love on a String Fundraiser

Kate Kelly reported that the balloon sales and deliveries went well, and $1000 was raised towards the purchase of a new grill. John Salter will match that amount. The following people were able to give of their time to make this all possible: Sheila Johnson, Arlene Santa Fe, Sue Christ, Austin Spinella, Kent Allen, Claudia Harris, John Budzyna, Cindy Johnson, Zack Longley, Peter Johnston, Ted Atkinson, Mrs. Buster Donahue, Dean McLellan, John Salter, his son Jared, and especially Kate Kelly. Thank you, one and all.

Fines

Badge fines were collected.

100th Anniversary Dinner

Sue Christ said she only has one more sleepless night before the big dinner. She is looking forward to a successful evening.

Program

Tom Howard introduced Mardi Chadwick from the Women's Crisis Center.

Mardi told us about a new program the Crisis Center has started with the help of the local police departments. It is called the Greater Newburyport High Risk Case Response Team, and its purpose is to assist those who are at high risk for assault and/or death. She mentioned GPS monitoring to track high risk cases. Restraining orders don't really work that well because basically they are just a piece of paper telling you what you cannot do.

Shelters are not the answer either because it just puts the victims in hiding and makes it difficult to have a family life. This team hopes to give the message that domestic violence is not acceptably and we are not going to tolerate it.

Mardi received a mug of candy as a thank you for speaking.

Raffle

The raffle of $16 was won by our waitress.